Sport

Batchelor and Australia join the World Cup final party

First published
in Sport
by Andy Warren, Deputy sports editor, awarren@swindonadvertiser.co.uk, @AndyWarren_

SWINDON Robins will have three representatives in Saturday's World Cup final after Troy Batchelor helped Australia progress from the Race-Off tonight.

The Swindon captain scored 11 from his five rides in Bydgoszcz, meaning he and Australia will take on Alun Rossiter’s Great Britain team and Peter Kildemand and Denmark in the final.

The Aussies enjoyed a tussle with Sweden throughout an eventful meeting at the Polonia Stadium, eventually winning by 11 points, with Greg Hancock the event’s top scorer with a 21-point maximum for USA as they finished third ahead of the Czech Republic.

Batchelor had to wait until heat four to get his meeting underway but made a superb start from the outside and rounded Josef Franc and Andreas Jonsson in the opening bend before storming away for victory.

Ride number two saw Batchelor make it to the first turn first where he was beaten out by Poole rider Vaclav Milik before eventually finishing second, but suffered a nightmare in his third outing as he finished last. Batchelor made the gate in heat nine and was looking for the cut back when he was chopped off by Thomas H Jonasson, leaving him stranded at the back.

Things got better in his final programmed as Batchelor barged past Kim Nilsson to take the victory, with Australia enjoying a huge slice of good fortune as Nilsson was excluded after the race finished for dangerous riding following a move on Eduard Krcmar.

The decision saw Sweden lose two points meaning the Aussies led by three with five races to go, with the victory secured by the end of heat 18 before Batchelor ended his night with victory over Milik in the final race.